Evaluation of Silicon Fertilization under Different Nitrogen Application Rates through Organic Manure on Growth Yield and Quality of Sweet Corn Zea mays L sachharata under Organic Farming

Abstract

newline A field experiment entitled Evaluation of Silicon Fertilization under Different Nitrogen Application Rates through Organic Manure on Growth, Yield and Quality of Sweet Corn (Zea mays L. sachharata) under Organic Farming was conducted at Organic Farming Unit (Agronomy), Rajasthan College of Agriculture, MPUAT, Udaipur during kharif 2019 and 2020. The soil of the experimental site was clay loam in texture with 252.15, 25.61 and 305.30 kg ha-1 available nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, respectively with 7.95 pH and 0.67 per cent organic carbon. The experiment was laid out in split plot design with three replications, assigning 48 treatment combinations comprising with four doses of nitrogen application through FYM in main plots Viz., M1-Control (no nitrogen), M2- 100% RDN through FYM, M3- 75% RDN through FYM and M4- 50% RDN through FYM and four doses of silicon in sub plots viz., S1- Control (No Silicon), S2- Silicon at 100 kg ha-1, S3- Silicon at 150 kg ha-1 and S4- Silicon at 200 kg ha-1. Sweet corn variety Sugar-75 was sown on 11th July during 2019 and 13th July during 2020 at 60 cm row to row and 25 cm plant to plant spacing by using seed rate of 8 kg ha-1. newlineResults of the two years trial revealed that growth attributes such as plant height, dry matter accumulation, leaf area index at harvest and yield attributing characters viz. girth of cob, length of cob, number of cobs per plant, number of grains per cob, average weight of cob with husk and average weight of cob without husk and green cob, green fodder and biological yield were found significantly higher with the application of 100% of recommended nitrogen through FYM over the application of 75 % and 50 % RDN through FYM and control. The chlorophyll content at 30 and 60 DAS, protein, fat, carbohydrates, total soluble solids and moisture content at time of harvest in green cob increased significantly with recommended dose of 100% RDN through FYM over the rest of nitrogen application through FYM. The nitrogen use efficiency, nutrient content (grai